


Love was made for me and you

by lantia4ever



Category: Avengers (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Humor, Kidfic, M/M, Natasha/Peter brotp, Parent Trap!AU, no superpowers, scheming and matchmaking kid-vengers, winteriron
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-11-08 06:51:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11076279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lantia4ever/pseuds/lantia4ever
Summary: Peter Parker, better known as Peter Stark to the general public, arrives 'undercover' at a remote summer camp with only one purpose - to have fun. Maybe cause a little trouble. And maybe even find new friends.Crossing path with a certain Natasha Romanov, or rather Natalie Barnes - the camp's veteran 'undercover 'attandee - and her group of friends, might just be exactly what Peter is looking for.But as Lady Luck would have it, he gets more than he bargained for and a simple, mundane summer suddenly turns into a mission of a lifetime for all involved.Now if only the adults would cooperate...Inspired by the 1998 movie - Parent trap. No need to know the movie, but I guess it helps ^^ (Also, it's a great movie! Watch it! *coughcough*)





	1. Double trouble

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone ^^ With the summer slowly creeping up on me here in the temperate zone, I have had a recent urge to rewatch a certain movie...that I admittedly rewatch waaaaaay too often - Parent trap. And for a long time I wanted to spin a little WinterIron tale from it, but AUs just bloody scare me, alright? :D  
> This time around though I have found some remnants of courage and also got mighty inspired by a certain spider-brotp and decided to just go for it.  
> Expect a crazy kid-Avengers/parents-Avengers ride that...should...end in a ton of fluffy WinterIron. Fluffy, yes. I know. Me and fluffy :D The world is ending... 
> 
> Enjoy and let me know what you think ^^ Will try to update weekly! Shouldn't be too long of a story...(said no Lantia4ever, ever)
> 
> Title is from the movie's intro song by Nat King Cole - LOVE
> 
> The fic is not beta-read, so I take full responsibility for anything out of the ordinary in the English AND Russian department.

“It’s just for a month!” Peter exclaims with bulged-out eyes, watching one huge suitcase after another emerging from the limo’s deceptively small trunk. “I didn’t bring all this to the airport!” he squints at Jarvis.

The elder man nods with his usual patience, corners of his mouth quirking. “Indeed you haven’t, young master, but I’m afraid that Sir has sent these two days ahead. In his words, you must have everything you need for the upcoming four weeks.”

Peter squints harder at the butler and pouts for good measure. “I don’t even _have_ this much stuff.”

“Sir went a bit...overboard with the shopping.”

“Of course he did,” he rolls his eyes, hands flailing around. “Happy! Stop unloading the suitcases, _pleeease_!”

Happy stops mid-unload and looks to Jarvis for help. The butler nods, which somehow means Happy should load the suitcases back into the car, because that’s where he shoves the luggage currently in his hands inside again with a groan.

“Check this out,” an accented, squeeky girl’s voice snickers from somewhere behind them and when Peter turns around, he spots two girls staring at the mountain of luggage. The petite brunette is quietly giggling at the sight, while the red head behind her just raises an amused eyebrow.

“жалкий,” the red head snorts and drags the still giggling girl down the road to the camp.

Peter glares at their backs for a while before facing Jarvis again.

“We shall take care of the luggage issue, young master,” Jarvis assures him, handling a single, fairly large red and blue bag with a spider on it to the small boy. "I believe this is the one you packed for yourself?”

“Thanks, J. I’ll take it from here,” he replies, confidently taking the bag, but drops it as soon as Jarvis lets go. He might look old and fragile, but Peter knows better. "I might have...gone a bit overboard, too,” Peter smiles sheepishly and drags the bag next to his feet.

“Yes,” Jarvis nods with a knowing smirk. “Well, we better be on our way,” he adds, eying Happy, who’s not even half-way through the luggage yet, with a weary expression. “Tis a farewell for now, young master,” he says, bending his knees to come down to the boy’s level and spreads his arms wide open.

Peter grins, jumping over the bag and into the older man’s embrace. “Have a good flight, J.”

“And you have a splendid summer,” he replies, quickly wiping the ready-to-spill tears into his sleeve before letting go.    

“See you in a month, J!” Peter waves them goodbye and heads for the camp with a sigh. A whole month without a computer…it sounded like a great idea at first, but now he wishes he at least managed to sneak a tablet in. Nothing gets past Jarvis though. “Um, hi,” he approaches an elder lady with an official looking clipboard.

“Mornin’ young man!” she greets him enthusiastically. “Go find your name on the board there, it’s got all the info about what group you’re with and what cabin you gonna be sharin’,” she answers his unspoken question with a smile.

“Thanks,” he nods and does as instructed, pushing through the wild crowds of other kids toward the board. It has dozen names written all over and it takes him a while to find his.

“First timer, huh,” someone says and a second later, a boy about his age but taller drops from the nearby tree.

“Now that’s my kinda guy,” Peter mumbles and grins at the newcomer. “Is it that obvious?”

“Been coming here since I was six. Got good memory for faces too and _yours_ is definitely new. It even looks new,” the boy returns the grin and approaches him, hand outstretched. “I’m Clint.”

He shakes it. “Why thank you, Clint. Good to know the plastic surgeries paid off,” Peter jokes, earning a scoff. “I’m Peter.”

“Looks like we’re bunking up, _Peter_ … since you’re obviously cool it’d be a shame not to join the cool forces together.”

Peter couldn’t agree more, but… “Actually, I’m with - ” he starts explaining that Clint isn’t in his cabin, pointing at the board accusingly, but the boy just rolls his eyes.

“Me, Bruce and Sam of course! See?” he argues and with an inconspicuous look around him, he tears off Peter’s name tag off the board and switches it with someone called ‘Brock’ that was placed in Clint’s cabin. Is Brock even a name? “Rumlow snores like a damn dragon so these guys can have him this summer.”

Peter decides he likes this guy. “What if I snore even more?”

“Well, let’s just say you might wake up on the roof of the cabin the next morning,” Clint chuckles dangerously and for some reason, Peter has no doubt that’s exactly what would happen. “Come now, I’ll give you the veteran camp tour of awesomeness!” he grabs him by the shirt and starts dragging him (and his heavier-than-it-looks bag) around the camp, animatedly describing everything.

 

Thankfully, he doesn’t wake up on the roof in the morning, so he must have passed the snoring inspection. The other two boys – Bruce and Sam – have also been here number of times before and are pretty much best friends with Clint. Not to mention the residential master pranksters so Peter feels like he fits right in. Bruce actually looks like this shy little innocent thing with thick glasses and a friendly smile…but he moved the entire bunk bed across the cabin on his own last night so looks are definitely deceiving in his case.

They sit down for breakfast at the giant mess hall and Peter notices a black-haired boy glaring at them from few tables away.

“That’s Brock,” Clint explains. “He wasn’t too happy about the cabin re-arrangement.”

“He looks…intimidating.”

“The word you’re lookin’ for is _constipated_ ,” Sam chuckles into his cereal.

“Yeah,” Clint joins him in laughing at Brock while Bruce just sends the ‘constipated’ fella a polite smile.

“Oh hey, you adopted the luggage boy,” a voice Peter remembers from yesterday comes from behind him and soon enough, the red-head with her giggly friend in toe round the table and casually sit next to Clint. “Did they even fit into the cabin?” she teases Peter while Sam frowns.

“Luggage boy? He only has like one little bag,” he comments.

“Well, yesterday it looked like he’s not one kid but at least forty,” Clint explains and Peter finally understands why everybody calls him ‘Hawkeye’. Nothing gets past this dude. Him and Jarvis would be best friends. “I bet his momma packed those for him without knowing,” he guesses and Peter spurts out the entire mouthful of orange juice. “I remember you had a similar problem, Tasha,” he smirks at the red-head who in turn gives him the deadliest of glares if Peter has ever seen one. And he’s seen aunt Pepper last month after his dad _forgot_ to attend a board meeting. _Twice_.

“Заткнись!” she punches his arm and with the quickest of moves, she steals his chocolate chip cookie.

“What? It’s true! Papa packed you half of your room and bought another half to go with it, not to mention the - ” he is cut off by the deceivingly petite girl’s elbow, hooked around his head in a deathly grip.

‘Lesson number one – no messing with her,’ Peter decides and risks offering a friendly hand to her. “Peter, nice to meet you!” he says, excited and immediately regrets it when that deadly glare turns his way. As if that could stop him! “Seems like we’ve got the same ‘overbearing dad’ problem. Stop giving me that look, I’m trying to find some common ground here!” he pouts and that does it right there. Nobody can withstand the power of the mighty Stark pout!

She accepts the hand, not letting go of Clint for a second. “Natasha. This here’s Wanda, this sorry-excuse-for-a-human’s cousin,” she squints at Clint and finally allows him to go free. “She thinks you’re funny.”

“No I don’t!” the other girl – Wanda – argues, but keeps on smiling.

“Hi Wanda. How are you this guy’s cousin?!” he frowns a bit, but Clint just smoothly turns his choking wheezes into a laugh.

“Well, the story begins with my mom and my aunt and - ” he starts but is immediately manhandled by Natasha again.

He grins at her. “Thanks, he spent the entire last night trying to explain to me why is Sam’s dad a blonde white dude…you gotta teach me this elbow move.”

The table erupts into laughter mixed with Bruce’s and Sam’s groans as they remember Clint’s unnecessary lesson of unnecessariness.

“Ты мне нравишься, дорога́я,” Natasha winks at him, stealing yet another cookie from the poor guy.  

“Say what?” Peter raises his eyebrows, wishing he took up Russian instead of Java. Swearing in Russian is so much easier than in Java…but not as much fun.

Seeing that Natasha won’t be translating any time soon, he goes back to his breakfast with a smile, already absolutely loving this camp.

 

 

“Wanna race me?” Peter dares Natasha, making Clint theatrically slap his palms on his face.

“You’ve got a death-wish?!” he sputters out.

He probably does. Natasha already ran three rounds of the monkey track throughout the afternoon and totally beat everyone into the dust.

Natasha grins and walks up to the starting line. “You’re on, shrimp.”

“Rest in pieces, bro,” Sam pats Peter’s head and moves out of the way.

“Good luck,” Bruce wishes, looking back and forth between the two with an unreadable expression as if not knowing who exactly is he rooting for.

“Alrighty! We’ve got ourselves some contestants here! From Malibu, Florida – one brave Peter Parker against our undefeated monkey track champion Natasha Romanov all the way from Swindon, Great Britain! Show us what you’ve got, darlings,” Stan, their elderly group leader, makes the introductions and waits for them to get ready.

“You’re going down, Parker,” she threatens him with a glare matching her sinister voice.

“Maybe…but not without a fight,” he smirks and stands at the ready next to her.

Stan nods and raises a hand. “Stand by…ready…go!” His hand drops and the two bolt from the starting line.

The first hurdle is the wooden climbing wall and as Peter climbs the rope all the way up and over, he notices Natasha actually fell behind already, but something tells him while climbing is definitely _his_ specialty, Natasha might excel in something else entirely. She’s running wicked fast, that’s for sure and as soon as they reach the monkey bars, she’s right back next to him. Throughout the race it’s exactly like that – a tug of war – depending on what the challenge is at the time someone gains or loses on the other. When Peter successfully runs over the balance beam and heads straight for the finish line to mad cheering of everyone present, he thinks he might just be able to come first, but what only seems like a couple leaps from the line a smudge of black and crimson flashes around him as Natasha speeds ahead and wins by only few seconds.

Everybody cheers for them, Clint even runs up to Nat to raise her hand in victory for good measure.

“Duuuuude,” Sam clasps his shoulder. “You ain’t too bad…usually anyone racing Tasha ends up biting the dust at the crawling pit while she’s already at dinner.

“Yeah, shrimp, no too bad,” Natasha admits and judging by Clint’s stunned expression, Peter should probably take that admission alone as a win.

“Thanks…you’re a beast!” Peter compliments her – making both Sam and Bruce squint at him suspiciously – and they shake hands.

Nat shrugs, leading the entire group aside to free the track for other challengers. “I train with my dad.”

“Tasha’s dad is a real beast,” Clint agrees but earns a warning stare from the red-head. “Or so I’ve heard,” he adds hurriedly, but Peter catches onto the strange vibe anyway.

“Pffft…I’m training with my beast of a dad _and_ mom and I ain’t _this_ good,” Sam pouts.

Nat chuckles. “Anyway…who do _you_ train with?” she asks Peter, bringing him out of his thoughts.

“Um…,” he blanks out because what is he supposed to say? ‘Oh, me? I train with my sixty years old former secret service butler and an army of robots my dad makes.’ Yeah, that’s not happening. “I uh…train with my beast of a dad, too,” Peter tries and since everyone laughs he thinks he’s won. Natasha doesn’t seem sold, though. But before she can probe for more information the dinner bell rings. ‘Saved by the bell,’ Peter thinks and is about to join Clint in the mad sprint towards the mess hall.

“Wait up, you two,” Stan stops them, looking pointedly at him and Natasha. “Night’s watch is yours tonight, as reward for your stellar performance!”

“Oh, maaaan,” Sam huffs in disappointment.

“ _Night’s watch_?” Peter turns to Natasha in question.

“We get to stay up an hour after curfew at the watch tower over there, basically,” she explains, clearly not too excited as Sam would have been.

“And you get to get up an hour later, too! With a breakfast delivery to the cabin!” Sam laments.

“Awesome!” Peter jumps up and smirks mischievously. “We are _so_ pranking someone!”

“Sounds like a plan,” Natasha answers with an equally mischievous glint in her eyes.

 

And plan it indeed becomes during dinner mischief-brainstorming session. So as soon as curfew is sounded by the objectively awful trumpet – Stan is definitely a better coach than a musician – and they are left at the tower with only one easy to evade supervisor keeping watch by the mess hall, Peter settles in the pretty comfy lookout with hot cocoa in hand and Natasha disappears into the night for about fifteen minutes.

It’s already dark outside, but every now and then, he can spot her flying across lit roads or at one point, even right behind the on-duty supervisor. A god damn ninja is what she is.

“Well?” he asks her as she climbs back up onto the lookout.

“It’s done. Nobody saw me.”

“Tsk…of course nobody saw you, Agent 007. And? Will it work?”

Natasha gives him a toothy smirk and this is where Peter knows Brock and all of the mean guys in his cabin are screwed, because it’s gonna rain hell at them as soon as they wake up. And hell translates into rotten eggs, spoilt milk and Peter could swear Nat took a sneaky run into the latrines for…something. But hey, Brock started it at lunch with all the salt he ‘accidentally’ spilt into their milkshakes.

“Let’s say they will have the best wake-up call, ever.”

He returns the smirk and high-fives the red-headed menace. “Nice! So, what are we gonna do with the remaining…thirty-seven minutes?” he checks his watch with a raised eye-brow.

“Gossip of course…surely you’d like to hear some juicy facts about your bunkmates and it just so happens I know all of them.”

“Cool! What about - ”

“But first,” she stops him with a devious wink. “You have to give up some about _yourself_. It’s a fair deal,” she shrugs and settles down comfortably into the many pillows and blankets to escape the chilly night air.  

Peter immediately makes use of his trademark technique – pouting – hoping to evade the situation. “The whole point of gossip is to talk about other people…and there’s nothing really interesting about me anyway.”

Judging by the ever widening smirk on the ninja’s face, that was the wrong thing to say. “Nothing, huh? You’re a rich kid in the middle of a wilderness camp with no flushing toilets and even worse – no internet…that makes you interesting already.”

“I’m not rich!” he argues with a frown.

“Your family then,” she shrugs. “A limo with a private driver and a butler? Not to mention your overbearing beast of a dad who bought half the shopping mall worth of stuff to pack for you…you’re as rich as it gets.”

His frown deepens and this time he conjures up an angry pout instead. “So what?” he barks at her but she just chuckles.

“Nothing. Doesn’t really matter. We’re all kinds of weird here. You should have been here five years ago when Sam’s dad was dropping him in here for the first time. He’s my dad’s best friend, kinda like an uncle to me, really…he’s cool…until he gets into dad mode. When he saw the camp, he freaked. So even though he packed Sam two big bags full of extra snacks and sweets he kept on sending more every day. Don’t ask,” she rolls her eyes at Peter’s confused expression. “He has a thing with food. Clint, Wanda and Pietro had quite the entrance too. Clint’s mom is a big fan of monster trucks so…enough said.”

Peter chuckles, imagining the three cousins arriving in here in a monster truck. Too bad Pietro couldn’t come this year, from all the tales Clint spins about him, he sounds like a ton of fun. Not to mention anyone who can outrun Natasha deserves all the respect there is. “And Bruce?”

Natasha smiles – almost fondly, Peter notices. “He’s on the relatively less weird side. Used to stay here all summer because…never mind,” she stops abruptly with a frown. “Anyway, your turn, rich kid,” she smirks, enjoying Peter’s unabashedly embarrassed reactions.

“Don’t call me that!”

“Богатый ребенооооок.”

“Stop! Why do you know how to speak Russian anyway?!”

“I’ll tell you if you tell me.”

“Tell you what?” he asks, glaring at the redhead.

“Something about you? A seeeecret,” she grins, her eyes sparkling in the faint light coming from the oil lantern in the corner.

Peter squints at her, contemplating his options. He could ignore the challenge and stubbornly remain silent for the next half an hour…or give in to his own curiosity and tell Natasha a secret…like… “My name’s not Peter Parker,” he casually says, expecting confusion or even shock from the girl, but she just grins some more.

“Natasha Romanov isn’t my name either,” she shrugs.

“I mean it _is_ my name, but really my…wait, what?” he blurts out, registering what she’s just told him.

“Well...it _is_ my name, _too_. Romanov was my grandmother’s name,” she deadpans.

“But…why don’t you use your - ”

“Actual name? Same reason as you don’t, I suppose. People lose their shit when they hear it.”

“Oh yeah? Five bucks say people lose more…shit…when they hear mine.”

Natasha laughs, that evil glint returning into her stare. “Deal. Go on then, hit me.”

He smirks, extending an introductory hand toward the ninja, while lazily sipping onto the now cold cocoa. “Stark. Peter Stark, nice to meet you.” He almost starts celebrating when a stunned expression crosses her face, but it quickly cracks into a matching smirk.

“No kidding. Barnes, Natalie. It’s a pleasure, mister Stark,” she says in a teasing voice and shakes his hand theatrically, while Peter promptly chokes on the cocoa.

“As in…”

“Yup.”

“No way! You’re like the junior martial arts champion for what now, three consecutive years?!

“Four actually, mister _I’ve invented five state of the art products in the past two years_ Stark junior.”

Peter scoffs, madly blushing. “I told dad to just advertise it as his but…,” he sighs and receives a sympathetic smile.

“But we have easily excitable dads that are proud of the smallest of achievements,” she sighs as well.

“You got that right…I suspect that when I got potty trained it was all over twitter!” Peter groans, making Natasha chuckle. “Your dad is like James Bond or something though, right?”

“James Barnes, actually. But we never miss an opportunity to call him Bond whenever he gets…difficult. And he is aaaalways difficult,” she puts on what Peter learnt to recognize as her dangerous smile. “What’s the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist like for a dad?”

“Not as bad as it sounds…or as bad as the media makes it sound,” he frowns angrily.

“What, so all that I’ve read on the internet was wrong? Impossible, the internet never lies!” she chuckles and Peter can’t help but join. It’s been a while since he revealed his _secret identity_ to someone and had this much fun with it. And even longer since someone obviously didn’t care about the fact his father is nobody else but Tony Stark himself. Then again, having James Barnes for a father, Natasha would totally understand. That guy is a military legend, not to mention the current spokesman for the secret service. And one of the ten people that received a prototype of his dad’s super secret bionics series. Not that Peter’s supposed to know that, no…but he did hack into FRIDAY’s mainframe a couple times when he was bored. Then again, knowing the passwords helps, too.

“Can’t wait to see what disaster he’s planning for my thirteenth birthday next month. He’s so terrible at that,” he complains and deeming it safe, he returns to his cocoa while Natasha hums.

“An August kid, hm? So am I. The 25th of August, 2004 – birthdays of champions,” she says somewhat sarcastically, but Peter must once again fight to keep the cocoa in its place.

“You’re kidding, right? No way!” he sputters, but Natasha merely cocks her head to the side. “I was born on the 25th too! In 2004!”

“Seriously? That’s some…really freaky coincidence.”

“Coincidence?! I think not!” he proclaims with a laugh. “Heh…that’s cool. We can share our embarrassing birthday stories the day after. If...you guys add me up on Instagram or something.”

“If our precious phones weren’t confiscated on arrival, we already would have. Clint sneaked it in two years ago and found a wi-fi signal on that tall birch tree behind the leader’s cabin.”

“Classic Clint…anyway, what’s with the Russian? Don’t you think I’ve forgotten about that for a second. A fair deal remember?” Peter asks, making Natasha roll her eyes.

“Dad taught me. We speak Russian all the time, especially when uncle Steve is around. He doesn’t understand a word,” she smirks.

“Your mom must be furious…dad always uses Italian when he doesn’t want Pepper to know what he’s saying. It drives her nuts!”

She shrugs. “I don’t have a mom so we’re stuck driving Steve nuts.”

“Ah…sorry, shouldn’t have assumed…”

“S’fine. I’m adopted…dad’s not exactly a…ladies man, if you know what I mean. So he and his mysterious, currently nonexistent boyfriend adopted me as a baby. And since they broke up it’s been just me and him. Not that I mind,” she explains, unknowingly stunning Peter into absolute silence. “What?”

“You’re…joking, right? Of course you are, Clint totally told you! Very funny,” he chuckles awkwardly, but stops when he notices Natasha’s more than confused expression. “That’s…seriously, this is exactly what _I_ told the guys yesterday when we were talking about our families, which resulted in the awful Clint monologue on Sam’s and Bruce’s dad…are you telling me we are all adopted, our dads are gay and here we are at the same camp? You know what the odds of that are? Here, let me count…” he pauses in the hasty outburst to go over the statistical improbability of said event, but Natasha interrupts.

“Not _all_ of us,” she squints at Peter. “Wanda and Clint are not adopted and only our dads are gay…as far as I know.”

“Oh…right…still…”

“Still,” Natasha continues in his stead, “this _is_ odd. So…who’s your dad number two?”

Peter scowls, folding his arms over his chest. “I dunno. They broke up when I was still a baby, I’ve got no idea who he was.”

Natasha’s focused face breaks into a widespread grin. “Yes you do.”

“I…do?”

“Your dad called him by a nickname.”

“Well, yeah, he did but how is that…”

“The Winter Soldier,” Natasha deadpans, making Peter gape at her.

“How do you know that?! It took me years to get dad to talk about him, so what the - ”

“And here I thought you were a genius,” she teases him.

“I am!” he pouts, trying to figure out what she was trying to say.

She rolls her eyes with a groan and shuffles towards him from the corner. “Shrimp, _your_ dad adopted _you_ with his boyfriend and then they broke up. _My_ dad adopted _me_ with his boyfriend and then they broke up. Our birthday is on the 25 th of August, 2004. Neither of us knows who our other dad is, but we know what their line of work was and what they called each other,” she explains, but Peter just blinks, dumbfounded. “Dude!” she slaps his arm and it’s such a Clint thing to do that Peter actually laughs. “Guess what my dad called his boyfriend…just guess and for Pete’s sake switch your brain on!”

“I dunno,” he pouts some more while managing to glare at the ninja, too, but she’s not bothered. In fact she keeps on pointedly staring at him the whole time.

“Let me see then, hm….how does Iron Man sound?”

Peter widens his eyes and it all suddenly clicks together.

“Finally…thought I would have to spell it out for you,” she mumbles, but keeps on smiling.

He facepalms in an exaggerated manner. “Your dad was a soldier!”

“And your dad was an engineer at the army,” she nods.

“So…that means…”

“Yeah.”

“And you and I are…”

“Yep.”

“We’re siblings!” he exclaims, hands flailing around and it’s Natasha’s time to facepalm.

“Seriously, _bro_. We’re not just siblings, we’re _twins_!”

“Holy sh - ” he slaps both hands over his mouth and stares at the red-head in the same awe-stricken way she’s staring at him.

It’s barely his second day at camp and he’s made five friends, lost a race, engineered a contraption to prank Brock’s cabin and found his twin sister. His dad is in SO much trouble, he doesn’t even realize. Both his dads are, if Natasha’s returning glint of evilness is any hint.

 

_TBC_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Russian bits (I think :D):  
> жалкий - pathetic  
> Заткнись - shut up  
> Ты мне нравишься, дорога́я - I like you, dear  
> Богатый ребенооооок - rich kiiiiid


	2. Avengers Cabin Assembles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brains are put together in order to come up with one simple plan - how to bring two naughty fathers together so their two naughty offsprings won't have to spend their lives on the opposite sides of the world. Despite Clint being part of the process, it might even work...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Hope you're having a beautiful first summer (or winter if you happen to be down south ^^) day! Me, I'm more of a Winter person myself *nudgenudgewinkwink* so I'm updating this little thingie today :) Time for our little kiddos to scheme away and begin mission match-make! Aaaaaaand we are finally meeting one of the two dads in question ^^  
> On a side note, I actually didn't want to do the swap thing from the movie at first, but half-way through the chapter I realized I'm missing half the hilarity, so...I just flailed around a bit and decided oh hell, boys...girls...this is Natasha and Peter, they can drag it up and fool everyone! :D So the swap is officially a go! ...now I gotta go hide somewhere before lil Nat assassinates me with a paperclip because I made her cut her hair... *flees*
> 
> Enjoy! <3

“This is some sorta elaborate prank, right?” Clint squints at the two newly revealed siblings, folding his arms. Peter did expect him to be the most suspicious.

“Little too elaborate, don’t you think?” Bruce muses. “As genius as they both are, I don’t think they made all that up…their birthdays _do_ match. Thought that was odd, but nobody else commented on it so…unless none of you realized th - “ he starts, but is immediately muffled by Sam’s quick hand on his mouth.

“Of course we realized!” Sam argues hurriedly. “As if we didn’t remember when Nat’s birthday was, pffft!”

“Totally didn’t remember,” Nat whispers to Peter, glaring at the now sweating boy still manhandling Bruce.

“Anyway!” Clint stands up, raising a calming hand. “If it’s true, then that’s without a doubt…the BEST damn thing eveeer!” he grins and high-fives Nat, holding up a hand for Peter as well, who is a bit slow to follow suit, but hey – they did only meet two days ago.

It’s so not fair, Peter thinks. Everything about this isn’t fair. He has a sister…a _twin_ sister, who he didn’t know existed and everybody else in this room knows her better than him. What does he even know about her? She kicks ass, runs faster than a ninja and when she glares daggers at someone, the daggers often materialize. Now that he looks a little closer he can also see the uncanny resemblance. Sure, she dyed her long and wavy hair red, has a fringe that Peter doesn’t and she speaks and behaves differently, but cut the hair, make it brown again and he might as well be looking at himself.

Damn scary.

“So! What are you crazy twins gonna do about this then?” Clint prompts, his initial suspicion completely replaced by his usual mischief. “Wanda! You are the resident expert at twin-ship, what do you think?”

Said girl rolls her eyes, sending her cousin a murderous glare of her own. “You don’t understand the situation _at all_ , Clint,” she shakes her head, giving Peter a calculating stare. “They can figure the sibling thing just fine…if they don’t have to live at the opposite sides of the world for the entire year and only meet here.”

Clint facepalms as if he’s had the epiphany of his life. “You’re right! The camp ends in few weeks! And…”

“And I’ll be heading back to Britain and shrimp here will fly back to Malibu,” Nat finishes for him. “Just around eight thousand kilometers apart, it’ll be _great_.”

“Eight thousand…damn, that’s like five thousand miles! That’s…a lot of miles,” Peter mumbles.

“I don’t know about you, but long-distance, over-Instagram family relations aren’t really for me,” Natasha decides, her dangerous grin making a reappearance. “There really is just one thing we can do if we don’t want to spend the rest of our lives texting each other.”

“Aaaaaaah, yeah!” Clint epiphanies for the second time today and Peter wonders if it’s the end of the world. Especially this early in the morning. “Matchmaking time!”

“Huh…not bad. For a bird brain like you,” Wanda snickers, dodging a pillow hurled her way. “Exactly what he said…we need to pull off the biggest matchmaking mission of our lives!” she announces dramatically, stunning the room into silence.

“Suuuuuure,” Peter scoffs. “I think the **_five thousand miles_** between our dearest fathers might be a bit of an issue, though!”

“Dude…if we managed to moved Steve from New York to London to get him and momma Peggy together then Malibu is gonna be a walk in the park!”

Peter folds his arms with a pout and glares at Sam. “Yeah? Well tell that to my dad, who didn’t fly out of the country since…well…since he brought me there. And them meeting over a video conference call like he does with his business partners is a no-go, don’t ya think?”

“Bro…if Iron Man won’t move, the Winter Soldier will,” Natasha says giving Clint a pointed look, their grins widening.

“The Expo! Of course!” And that’s the third Clint epiphany of the day. The world is definitely ending.

“Are you coming to the Expo?” Peter asks wearily. “I don’t think your dad would want to come to a thing my dad is organizing.”

“ _Our_ dads are morons,” Natasha deadpans. “If anything, they deserve some serious prank punishment for lying to us all these years, but first…we gotta find out if mission matchmake is a go. And to figure that out, we gotta put them in the same room and see what happens. The Expo is a perfect opportunity.”

“You wanted to go there since you were five, Nat. What makes you think uncle Buck’s gonna buckle underneath your puppy eyes this time?” Sam asks and Peter almost wishes he hadn’t, because his sis conjures up the evilest of looks.

“Easy. He’s not gonna buckle underneath _my_ puppy eyes, but _his_ puppy eyes,” she grins wickedly and points at Peter, who now begins to question his own sanity.

“I’ve got a pretty mean pair of those, yes. But even I haven’t managed to use them _overseas_!” he pouts, but his sister is having none of it.

“Don’t you want to meet your daddy number two? Because I sure do,” she states, the grin easing into a smile.

This time, Clint faceplants into the pile of pillows behind him. “Yhwntaswtchplces?!” he incoherently sputters into the pillows.

“Yes, we’re gonna switch places,” Natasha decides and all Peter can do is stare at her in absolute, stunned confusion.

“Um…sorry to break it to you, Nat, but I think uncle Bucky is going to notice if a boy returns instead of a girl. I don’t know Tony, but he’s probably going to notice as well,” Bruce says carefully as if not to annoy the red-head ninja too much.

“Damn straight he will!” Peter insists. “Sure, we do look alike and with some tweaks we could even look _really_ , _scarily_ alike, so alike our fathers would be fooled, but good luck explaining to FRIDAY why I have to suddenly pee sitting down!”

Wanda and Sam break out in giggles, while the rest conjure up thoughtful expressions.

“I won’t have to explain, I will recruit FRIDAY in on the plan,” Nat shrugs as if this plan was the easiest plan of all the plans she has ever devised. “Something tells me a highly intelligent AI system is exactly what we need to succeed. I’m afraid you won’t have any superior help on my side of the world, other than these guys,” she waves at said guys.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Tasha,” Clint pouts, even faking tears. “Your bro has a point though. You _do_ look alike, now that I’m looking real closely…but the hair and your accent and voice…I dunno.”

“Hair is easy. The dye will wash out by the end of the camp and if not, I’ll just say I lost a bet or something. And I guess I’ll have to cut it,” she sighs, clearly not happy about the prospect.

Judging by the collective gasps, nobody is.

“No way! You love your hair! You will die without your hair!” Sam shrieks overly dramatically.

“I’ll survive somehow, dumbass. Not sure how my bro is going to survive having his ears pierced, though,” she smirks.

“What?! Oh hell no! Nope! Nopitty nopitty nope nope nope. I refuse, besides I haven’t even said yes to this batshit crazy plan!”

“Do you have a better one? Sure, we could both go back to our respective fathers and pray that we will lure them into the Expo trap, but what if we don’t? This is not just an amazing opportunity to get to know our other dads, but if the Expo bait doesn’t work, then the switch is one sure way to get them to meet once you spill the beans. It’s not like dad would Fedex you back to the States. Or the other way around. I hope.”

“I hate to say this,” Clint frowns, “but this is genius.”

Peter gives them one more rebellious pout but eventually crumbles. He does want to meet his dad number two. If piercing his ears, dressing up girly and changing up his voice a bit is the way to accomplish that, he’ll do it. “Okay…fine. I’m in.”

“Oh dude, there is SO much work to do before the camp ends! You need to learn your way around our neighborhood and names of our parents and - ” Sam starts in a panicky manner.

“We’ll set up some trivia breaks whenever we are with each other to get to know each other…like really get to know each other. You guys better figure out how to persuade _your_ parents to come along to the Expo as well. We need all the manpower we can get,” Natasha prompts them.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Wanda sighs, exchanging a challenging look with Clint. Clearly these two are going to compete who gets the plane tickets first.

“Of course!” Peter clasps his hands, excited. “Maybe a bunch of free all-week-long passes to the Expo could help you all out.”

“Great idea! Nobody can say no to freebies,” Sam nods. “But it gots to be believable. Like it’s from some online competition.”

“A giveaway,” Bruce agrees. “Dad loves giveaways.”

“Yeah!” Sam exclaims, sealing the deal with Bruce in a very complicated handshake.

“I’ll have FRIDAY send you the tickets as soon as I’m back home. I mean…Nat is going to have Fry send you the tickets. So…let’s assume you’ll all make it there. And we somehow get our dads to meet. What then?” Peter asks, the answer to this particular question bugging him since this plan started taking shape. “I mean…what if they hate each other? What if them meeting will just end up in a big fight and we won’t get to meet… _ever_?! They did break up for a reason, after all.”

“A stupid-ass reason, I bet,” Sam snorts.

“We don’t know that,” Peter flails his hands around as if trying to summon all his doubts into existence.

“We’ll find out then,” Natasha suggests. “This isn’t rocket science, bro. Don’t overthink it. We’ve got superior brain power here,” she gestures around the room. “And even if our dads don’t like each other, they like _us_ , right? They wouldn’t make a scene…at least not until they find out we totally conspired against them.”

After hearing Natasha’s absolutely confident in what she’s saying, Peter sighs, letting the tension leave his body. Instead of the frown, he introduces one of his very own scheming smirks. “Alrighty, let’s do this!”

 

* * *

 

 

And so, three weeks, two pierced ears and one haircut later, July and the camp came to an end. But their mission was just about to begin. The past few days, Peter and Natasha tested their genius plan on the camp leaders, who were safe to say more than confused whenever the two of them were together. And when Peter went a full day pretending to be Natasha and the other way around without anybody questioning it, they decided the mission is a definite go.

The final morning after breakfast, Natasha sneaked into the Avengers cabin – as they have decided to call their newly founded family club of awesomeness – to change clothes and exchange bags with Peter and with silence unusual for both of them, they then scrambled to the yard to say goodbye.   

“I’ve finally decoded the letter from Pietro,” Wanda runs up to them as they approach the waiting group. “Bucky will be at the airport,” she winks at Peter. “Along with uncles Steve and Wade. Mom and dad aren't coming because they couldn't decide who stays home with Pietro and his broken leg and who comes for me...typical. Anyway, if this fails, we’ll know about it immediately.”

“Great,” Peter mumbles. “So he can put me onto a plane home right away.”

“He won’t,” Natasha slaps his arm. “And even if, he’ll be hopping onto that plane, too. It’s a win-win.”

“Well, Jarvis will be waiting for you at the airport as well, along with Happy.”

“Got it. Dad Tony doesn’t do airports,” she nods, repeating what Peter told her a while ago.

“Seriously though, watch yourself around Jarvis. He could easily have a spy-off with Wanda’s parents – and win! Against _both_ of them!”

“So could I,” Clint smirks, but cowers behind Bruce to dodge Wanda’s glare. “And so can Nat! I taught her well,” he cracks an even wider smile but has to now face two glares.

“If I get past Jarvis, I can get past anyone - understood, bro,” she nods, shaking her head momentarily. “I meant, understood, _sis_ ,” she corrects herself, voice a perfect imitation of Peter.

“This is scary,” Bruce comments, looking between them.

“Tell me about it,” Peter agrees, falling in line with the act, his voice losing his default excitement and instead introducing Nat’s default threat of death.

“Buses to the airport leave in ten minutes!” one of the leaders announces and the all-around efforts to board the right bus intensify.

“The blue one back there is ours,” Clint, who of course scouted ahead, waves his hand nonchalantly at the other end of the road.

Bruce stumbles over to Natasha and envelops her in a tight hug that she returns with a chuckle. “See you soon.”

“Sure thing, mедвежонок.”

“I would never call him that,” Peter slaps his palm on his forehead at hearing the cutesy endearment she only ever uses with Bruce.

“Right…see ya, _dude_ ,” she tells Bruce instead which makes him chuckle.

“I’ll haul the bags to the bus,” Bruce offers after releasing the ninja in disguise and with the same ease that he moved the bunk bed the first day around, he picks up the entire group’s luggage – sans Nat’s – and heads for the blue bus.

Taking advantage of his retreat, Clint, Sam and Wanda all exchange a hug and a goodbye with their long-time friend and leave the twins alone, racing towards the bus.

“So…,” Peter starts, uncertain what to say. “Ready?”

“I was born ready!” she grins, definitely falling in character now. “And I will definitely enjoy riding the limo to the airport instead of the bus. Bus is cool, but nothing beats the back of a limo that you got all to yourself!”

Peter scoffs, but is silently proud of how easy she seems to have adopted his way of speech and all. “Whatever,” he shrugs – a perfect imitation of the formerly red-headed ninja, if he does says so himself – and gives her a brief, yet meaningful hug.

“Don’t forget to call tomorrow. Gotta share first impressions,” she smiles.

“We sure do, _bro_.”

“NAT! Come on! You lost the race!” Clint yells at them and Peter knows what that means – he’ll be sitting by the window. Little does Clint know that unlike Nat, he actually prefers it.

“Well, don’t keep the bird weirdo waiting. I’ll see you all soon,” she prompts him and sits down at a nearby bench to wait for the limo to arrive.

“Yeah. Soon,” Peter mumbles and with a wave and a last look at his sister, he sprints to the blue bus to join the rest in their long journey to the UK.

 

 

The flight back home takes forever. Peter usually enjoys the long flights, because he can sneak around the cabin and do some amateur spying on people – something he apparently has in common with Natasha, but that’s the last thing on his mind right now. The three weeks the group had left of their camp proved productive. They’ve spent every free moment perfecting their plan and every free alone time with Nat he had was spent exchanging stories of their two illustrious fathers. It almost feels like the two of them had known each other for years, not just a couple of weeks. They are twins after all…and Nat did admit she has always wanted a brother. One of the reasons she and Clint used to spend every afternoon together after school since they were five. Then Sam joined in once uncle Steve moved to the area and finally Bruce. Then Clint brought Wanda and Pietro to the camp few years ago and the big family of friends for life was complete. But not really. Something was always missing.

Someone. And for Peter it was no different.

He smiles, watching the clouds pass by outside of the window and wonders if his big happy family can get a bit bigger, still. If he’s got any say in this – and he sure as heck does – the answer is a very strong yes.

His initial determination and excitement was however soon crippled by hints of anxiety and…doubt. What if Bucky Barnes really hates his dad…like _a lot_. And worse…maybe he hates _him_ too. Maybe he wouldn’t even recognize him.

He dismisses the dreary thoughts. Of course he wouldn’t recognize him! He was just a baby! He would hope he doesn’t look like a baby anymore! Any further observations are interrupted by loud snores coming from the seat in front of him, which he promptly kicks. And when that doesn’t work – because with Clint, it never does – he executes a swift choke hold on the boy, making him sputter curses while Sam laughs and Bruce sends him a grateful smile.

Nat didn’t only teach him some Russian, alright. This particular ninja move was on top of Peter’s list of must-learns.

“ _Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts as we are approaching London’s Heathrow airport and will be landing in approximately ten minutes. The weather is…”_

Peter lets his friend go, fastening his seatbelt and elbowing Wanda – blissfully listening to some music on the plane’s headphones – to make her do the same. “It’s show time,” he grins despite all his worries. It really is _his_ dad that should be worried right now. Actually… _both_ their dads should be.

 

 

Once they all have their bags they head to the Arrivals exit, exchanging determined expressions. Most of the other passengers from their flight have already left, so the only ones waiting behind the zig-zag security line are Clint’s dad – Wade, who will be taking Wanda home as well, uncle Steve and of course Bucky. Peter almost halts in his steps, just to stare at the man he’s been missing for twelve years of his life and didn’t even know it. His warm gaze zeros in on him and Peter is sure any second now he’s going to frown and realize he is most definitely not Natasha. Instead, he…smiles.

“Hey! Kiddos!” Wade greets them and to mad shrieking of most of them, they execute the run and hug moves.

Remembering everything Nat has thought him – and most importantly remembering Nat and her ever collected demeanor, so different from his own, he just rolls his eyes and calmly walks over to his dad. Or at least hopes he looks calm, because on the inside he is ready for a nuclear explosion. What now? Should he hug him? Kick him in the knee? Both?

Bucky kneels, his charming smile growing wider. “Welcome home, Золотце!” he says as Peter approaches him.

Deciding mauling his recently discovered second father would not serve their current mission in the least he returns the smile and with a deep breath he hops into those outstretched arms. “Папа!”

He can’t believe it. They’ve actually done it! And here he is, hugging his dad. His _dad_! Which now doesn’t necessarily have to refer to Tony.

When they pull apart, he looks him over with a frown and Peter freezes. “What did they feed you in there, hon, you’re taller than Clint!” he grins and ruffles Bruce’s and Sam’s hair when they run up to give him a quick hug as well.

“What?! Nah-uh!” Clint whines and immediately stands next to him, measuring their height theatrically. Peter gots to give him credit for acting absolutely casual as if Peter really was Natasha and not a cross-dressing, long lost twin brother of hers.

“Face it, birdman, you are shrinking,” he teases him even though he knows Bucky is definitely over exaggerating because Clint still is the tallest of the group.

“Pfft! Let’s go, dad! Four weeks with these guys were enough for me!” Clint pouts, but very pointedly winks at Peter as he grabs his dad and Wanda by their elbows, dragging them away.

“Uh…suuuuure,” Wade squints at Clint suspiciously and turns to the other two adults. “So, Saturday, guys?”

“Yeah, see you then,” Steve nods.

“What’s on Saturday?” Bruce asks curiously, stealing the question from now slightly panicking Peter.

“Barbeque of course!” Wade, still being dragged by his son and niece, yells back. “Everyone’s invited!”

“Awesome!” the two Rogers brothers exclaim and Peter is sure Nat would usually join in the excitement, but he is a man on a mission and won’t be distracted by this, especially when there’s one… _two_ more people he would want to attend said barbeque with to make it _complete_. His obviously ever vigilant dad immediately notices the lack of a reaction.

“What up, little pup?”

He exchanges an SOS look with Clint, but all he does is shrug. So Peter does the same. “Nothing. Just want to go home.”

“You guys must be dead tired, come on, Bucks! Let’s drive these punks home,” Steve prompts and Peter mentally slaps himself. He completely forgot uncle Steve!

He runs up to the huge man and gives him a side hug.

“Hey, Nat,” he chuckles, patting him on the head. ”Whoa….you cut your hair?” he notices and moves to remove the inconspicuous hat, but Peter quickly dodges him.

“Busteeeed,” he mumbles and holds on to the hat, willing it to stay there. “Uh…yeah. I mean, yes, I did. I lost a bet with this…infuriating American kid,” he shrugs.

Steve raises a questioning eyebrow but Bucky just laughs. “And? Did you get him back?” Peter grins and nods. “Good, now let me see,” he moves for the hat again and Peter knows they’re doomed. Ten minutes. Their perfect but definitely stupid disguise mission failed in ten minutes. Peter lets him take the hat down, noting Bruce and Sam coming closer as if for support, but once again, Bucky just laughs. “Huh, not bad. You kinda look like a boy now though.” And his smile visibly falters there.

“Is that a bad thing?” he asks carefully.

Bucky’s momentary slip is all but gone in an instant and the smile Peter decides is absolutely gorgeous returns at full power. “Of course not, hon. It’ll grow back…or you can keep it this way if you’ll like it.”

“Looks good to me,” Steve shrugs and with the most casual move, he sweeps his two sons along with their bags off the floor and bolts for the exit. “Race ya to the car, punk!” he calls at Bucky, who gives Peter a challenging grin.

“Are we letting them win?”

Peter mirrors the grin, eyes igniting in mischievous sparkles. “No way!”

Second later they take off after the Rogers’ and in ten second they are already in the lead.

 

 

Since they’ve won the car race, Bucky got to drive even if it was Steve’s car. It was a good thing, because according to Nat, Steve drives at half the allowed speed limit and gets out of the car to help the elderly cross the street all the time, so what is usually just over an hour long drive goes into five hours. Sitting between Sam and Bruce helps him relax for while, barely engaging in any conversation at all, even though Steve is basically interrogating the boys about the camp.

By the time his eyes start to drop, they finally arrive…home. Peter recognizes the quiet suburban neighborhood from the few actual photos Nat had with her. Lines of semi-detached houses surrounded by trees and small gardens form a very lovely street that Peter can honestly say he’s never seen. He always knew their Malibu villa was really over the top house in the middle of nowhere, but even in New York the streets are just so…busy and impersonal. He loves his home of course, but he could definitely get used to this.

“Thanks for the ride, uncle Bucks!” Sam waves at Bucky after he parks in front of Steve’s house and hurries outside to fish his and Bruce’s bag out of the trunk.  

“Good luck,” Bruce whispers and gives him a quick hug, similar to the one he’s shared while saying goodbye to Nat at the camp so Peter assumes it’s nothing out of the ordinary for them.

“Thanks. Don’t be strangers,” he whispers back, hinting at the battle-plan they all have their roles in.

He nods and joins Sam, waving Bucky goodbye.

“Hey, pup. Why don’t you run along first? Gotta talk to Pegs for a minute. I’ll be right there,” Bucky winks at him and grabs his bag, shutting the trunk close and letting Steve lock the car.

“Sure – I’ll take the bag!” he jumps at Bucky, all but ripping Nat’s ninja black bag from his hands.

“O…kay,” he chuckles and follows the Rogers’ to the door. “Eyes up!” he suddenly turns around and throws something at Peter.  

He startles a bit, but catches it easily. They’re keys. “Right!” he slaps his forehead, but immediately schools his features back to neutral, knowing Nat isn’t really the expressive type. “Thanks!” he calls at Bucky’s back, the man raising a waving hand as reply while entering Steve’s house. “Right…,” Peter turns around and scans the neighborhood for _their_ house. “On the right from Steve’s…the other side of the road…red mailbox…ha! Right there!”

He slowly approaches the driveway of what he confirmed as being Nat’s and their dad’s place, trying to take in every detail. It looks like any other house on this street, the brightly colored mailbox being the only recognizable difference. With a sigh, he unlocks the massive wooden doors and enters the small hallway that splits into three directions and a staircase.

After exploring the ground floor for a while, Peter can only describe the house as…homey. Warm and tidy – unlike Peter, who just shoves everything into wardrobes willy-nilly, Nat definitely likes her things in order, which is why her cabin always looked like it was barely habited. Seeing the entire place looking all neat, Peter guesses it must be Bucky’s influence. He still is his father’s son – the other father’s though. The only reason the villa isn’t a total mess is thanks to Jarvis.

The furniture is modern, but all made of wood, something he’s not used to from the metal and plastic clad villa. He collapses onto the cushiony sofa, breathing in the flowery smell from the nearby air-freshener and closes his eyes. A smile slowly spreads across his face, tears attacking his eyes too.

But it’s a happy smile and happy tears. He just hopes Nat’s doing okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As for the Russian bits, Natasha calls Bruce 'teddy-bear' or 'lil bear', however you wanna think about it ^^ Bucky calls his ninja daughter (or in this case, his genius son) a 'sweetie' or 'hon' or even 'darling', I guess would be the synonyms. It's a bit tricky - us Slavs use this word - 'Zlato', 'Zlatko' or 'Zlatíčko' that literally translates as 'gold/goldie' - which clearly doesn't make much sense in English as an endearment, but is very common around here to use for your significant others, kids and even your 'mortal enemies' as downright sarcastic remark bordering on an insult...there's a fine line there, depending on how you say it :3 Peter in turn calls Bucky simply 'papa' ^^


	3. Home sweet Malibu home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha arrives to the villa...and she's not the only one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! ^^ As promised, we will look at Natasha's side of the world in this here chapter and finally get to meet Tony <3 Hope you'll enjoy!
> 
> PS: Seen Spiderman Homecoming this Wednesday and I am STILL so fangirling over it, that's how awesome it was! So hyped with Peter right now, lol ^^ One of Tony's scenes though...ugh...and the after after credit scene...UGH :DDD

Natasha has been completely out of her element ever since the limo arrived to pick her up and drove her to the airport. This is in fact the first time she’s travelling alone. Not that she would admit the fact to a living soul, because she’s Natasha Barnes, alright? She can handle travelling alone just fine. Totally. No problem.

Even if she has little idea of what is waiting for her at journey’s end. Even if she could really use a little bit of Clint’s humor to lift her spirits. This way she has to settle for something else to occupy her mind for the mere two hour flight to Los Angeles. Watching a movie isn’t helping one bit, the music selection offered is questionable and napping is out of the question since there are not two, but three overly energetic five-year olds sitting at the two rows in front of her that she can’t execute her usual Clint control on.

“Would you like some refreshment, young sir?” the flight attendant asks politely and Natasha wonders if she could get away with ordering vodka in the US first class – not that she would drink it of course, it’s just for the challenge. And papa Bucky always so adorably loses his shit when she does that. The first time she ordered a double tequila at a restaurant, he spat the mojito he was drinking all over the table. She should definitely execute this move on papa Tony to see how _he_ reacts.

“Black tea please, milk, no sugar,” she requests, conjuring an inner smirk when the flight attendant nods and forces a polite smile. She couldn’t order anything more English without demanding fish & chips to eat as well.

And so she occupies herself with trolling the staff and passengers alike until the plane lands at their destination.

  

* * *

 

She recognizes Jarvis immediately after she enters the private lobby of the giant airport and even though she’s expertly hiding behind the passing by adults, trying to do some spying first, Jarvis spots her instantly as well. Just as Peter said, the elder man is deceptively observant.

“Young master!” he calls out, excited.

Here goes nothing.

She falls into character and waves a flailing hand in greeting. “Jarvis!” she calls right back and runs up to the man, already kneeling down to meet her in a hug.

He pulls back with a frown, looking her over. “You got your ears pierced?” he asks adorably scandalized.

“And I got three tattoos as well!” she grins, hopeful that Jarvis just might give her disguise a pass.

“Oh mighty Lord,” he rolls his eyes, understanding her jest. “No earrings though?”

She would usually smirk at that, but knowing Peter, she instead pouts. “I’m not a girl! Just lost a bet, is all…”

“I see. Well then, shall we?” he smiles, picking up Peter’s ridiculously heavy bag without breaking a sweat and offering a hand for her to hold onto on their way to the car. She is not big on hand holding – she’s not a kid anymore, alright? – but even she can’t resist to leech onto Bucky’s bionic arm whenever she can – and she’s the only one that can. So she grabs onto Jarvis’s hand without a pause, deeming it normal for him and Peter.

On the road, Natasha decides Jarvis is absolutely amazing. And so is Happy. They ask her all kinds of questions about the camp with genuine interest – how did she like it, did she find any new friends, how was the weather. She answers all of them without skipping a beat and as Peter would undoubtedly do, she fires more questions at them in return.

By the time they reach the villa, she knows Pepper is there and brought a cake, FRIDAY can’t wait to welcome _her_ back and papa Tony is in his workshop, likely hooked on caffeine and blissfully oblivious that his _son_ is returning today. 

Everyone here clearly cares very much about her twin brother. She breathes a sigh of relief at that revelation. Not that she was expecting some horrid atmosphere with distasteful and mean people – not after Peter all but sang odes to Jarvis and everyone in and out of the house – but it should make the mission much easier even if she is busted somewhere along the way.

She got past Jarvis and Happy, but as she exits the car and walks up to the front door with Jarvis close behind, she can’t help but feel anxious. After all, there are more people to fool and one long lost father to meet.

If her mission fails, it’ll be because of the one and only FRIDAY, who will likely see through her disguise straight away.

“Welcome home, young master,” Jarvis smiles the brightest of smiles and opens the door for her to enter.

“Good to be home,” she sighs and enters the large lobby.

Peter was totally not exaggerating about how huge the mansion is. The lobby alone was bigger than the first floor of her house. If Natasha ever doubted her bro about how papa Tony goes overboard with everything, she sure isn’t doubting it now. Ridiculously rich or not, the mansion was a bit of an overkill for just three to four people.

Good thing she studied Peter’s scribble of the house plan very closely, because otherwise she would be lost right away.

“Here we go,” she mumbles and moves further in towards the open doorway to the living room.

“Oh my goodness! Look at you!” a sweet voice echoes through the lobby and in about two seconds, Natasha is squished into a powerful hug.

“Hi, Pep…great to see you again but you’re kinda suffocating me here!” she greets her godmother using Peter’s typical flare, even conjuring a pout to go with it when Pepper pulls away.

“Awww, you have no idea how I’ve missed you,” she smiles blinking away the onset of tears.

“Dad giving you trouble?”

“Pfft, you have no idea. He’s an absolute menace when you’re not here!” she shakes her head.

“Nothing you can’t handle though,” she grins and is relieved to see the woman return it.

“Of course. He’s been holed up in the workshop for days. Jarvis assures me he ate and slept somewhat, but I think a little intervention from his number one favorite son is needed right about now.”

She shrugs, waving a dismissive hand. “Number one? What do you mean, I’m his _only_ son,” she scoffs. And in fact his only daughter too.

“So, how about Jarvis takes your bag to your room and I will go cut the cake I bought. You go try to resurrect Tony from the workaholic coma and we can all have a slice together in the kitchen?” she suggests and Natasha nods excitedly.

“Is everything alright with FRIDAY?” Jarvis asks, frown scrunching up his wrinkled face. “She’s been so excited about your arrival and hasn’t even said hello yet,” he muses and Natasha stiffens on the spot.

She forgot about FRIDAY! Who was absolutely – and unusually – silent this entire time.

“Hey, FRIDAY!” she greets the AI with Peter’s standard big smile and even waves in the air, but her eyes tell a different story. Those are filled with a clear, deadly ‘I dare you to out me right now’ seriousness only Natasha can put into a stare. “I’ve been really excited, too, you know… _to come home_.”

There’s that eerie silence again, making even Pepper frown in confusion, but few moments later a voice rings through the speakers.

“Welcome home,” FRIDAY simply says, but there is something unexpected in the AI’s voice. A strange mix of emotions. Surprise, awe and recognition would be the ones most prominent and that’s where Natasha is sure the AI knows. Not just that she’s not Peter, but _she knows who she is_.

So FRIDAY knows about her and likely about papa Bucky as well. Natasha wonders who else knows. Jarvis? Most likely. Probably even Pepper. She decides to find out later and focus on the present situation instead. “Thanks. It’s great to be here. Reeeeally great,” she says pointedly, hoping the AI will read between all the lines.

Considering the AI doesn’t say anything else, she likely understands.

“I swear to God she couldn’t stop talking about you coming back for the whole week and now all she says is welcome back?” Jarvis once again makes Natasha’s blood freeze with his perceptiveness, but he just shrugs it off and heads up the staircase. “Oh well, she probably doesn’t like admitting to it,” he chuckles. “I shall take care of the bag and make sure your room is ready for your return. Do go say hi to your father,” he prompts her and Natasha doesn’t need to be told twice.

She exchanges a nod with Pepper, who disappears around the corner towards the kitchen while she confidently walks behind the staircase and goes down to the basement level.

Closing the door behind her, entering the long, darkened hallway that leads to the garage, storeroom, laundry and most importantly – the workshop – she leans back against the door and lets out a long exhale.

“Hello, FRIDAY,” she whispers, looking up. She doesn’t know where the all-seeing cameras FRIDAY uses are set up, so she just settles for the ceiling. “Thought an introduction is in place before I go say hello to my dad, but…something tells me you know who I am.”

“Indeed,” she answers after a pause. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Natalie.”

“I prefer Natasha, actually…and right now, I prefer _Peter_.”

“I must admit I am confused as to…how are you here,” the AI admits and Natasha smirks.

“That’s a long story. To summarize, me and Peter met on the camp, we figured out who we are and decided to switch places to meet with our other dads. Main mission of course being to bring the two back together…if that’s even possible,” she adds nervously.

FRIDAY once again goes silent for a while and Natasha wonders if even the state of the art AI needs human amount of time to think things through.

“I see. So Master Peter is currently on his way to Great Britain to meet one James Barnes, is that correct?”

“That would be correct. And me, I am currently on my way to meet one Tony Stark. That is…if you let me?”

One more contemplative moment later, FRIDAY answers: “I believe it is in everyone’s best interest if I do allow you to do so. Your…mission sounds agreeable,” she adds thoughtfully. “I believe I could be of assistance.”

Natasha breaks into a painfully big, but happy smile. “I was hoping you’d say that. So was Peter. Glad you’re with us, Fry. Can I call you Fry?”

“Master Peter does, so it only seems fair you would as well.”

“You’re _so_ cool, you know that? Okay, we’ll talk later. Have to go meet dad number two,” she says and moves down the hallway to where she remembers the workshop to be.

“Good luck, Miss Natasha. I shall quickly inform the bots of the situation so they won’t give you any trouble.”

“Thanks,” she sighs and when she reaches the strong blast door, FRIDAY opens them for her.

The thick door reveals a brightly lit, large room full of various high-tech equipment Natasha doesn’t hope to understand. The air is filled with a melodic, heavy electric guitar rock music she recognizes all too well – ACDC.

“Soooo, they _do_ have something in common,” she thinks out loud and let’s her eyes search around the workshop.

She takes a couple more steps inside, but before she can spot Tony, two robots round the nearby table and take her by storm of happy beeping sounds.

“You two must be DUM-E and U,” she smiles at the curious bots, now encircling her in visible interest. “Why, aren’t you both properly cool fellas,” she chuckles when they beep in reply and prod her friendly with their claw heads.

“DUM-E! Where did you hide the extinguisher this time?! I will donate you to the Smithsonian if I find out you’ve - ”

Natasha alerts to the unknown voice and suddenly she stares in the face of the one and only Tony Stark, face and clothes smeared with oil, sweat and dirt, hair disheveled and his eyes piercing straight through hers.

“Peter,” he blurts out, eyes going wide. “That was _today_?! How was that today and nobody told me, Fry?!”

“Surprise, boss,” FRIDAY answers comically.

“Surp…FRIDAY, I will reprogram you and sell you as GPS! A _surprise_ …never mind,” he groans and goes from angry to excited in a split of a second. “Come here kiddo!” he smiles widely and kneels, arms outstretched.

Natasha is momentarily stunned by the sight, but quickly recovers and with a smile of her own runs into up to the man that she’s been thinking about the whole summer, hugging him close.

“Hey…dad,” she mumbles into his shoulder and might sound way out of Peter’s character, but she doesn’t care. She feels a low chuckle rumble through papa Tony’s chest and lets him pull away slightly.

“Hey yourself…I really wanted to come down to the airport this time, I specifically told FRIDAY to tell me and Jarvis - ”

He starts babbling, but Natasha just shakes her head and slaps his shoulder playfully. “That’s okay. You’re probably working on something cool and important.”

Peter told her all about how busy and distracted Tony gets sometimes and how guilty he feels whenever he forgets or misses something because of it. Especially when it comes to Peter.

Her dismissal doesn’t seem to do the trick, because if anything, Tony looks even guiltier, now with an extra flare of sadness. “ _You’re_ important,” he mutters, more serious than Natasha has ever seen the genius in public.

Now that just won’t do. “I am indeed, which is why you’re going to leave the cool and important gadget you’re working on and come with me to eat the cake Pepper made! I mean bought.”

That manages to crack his darkened face into a grin. “A cake? How could I say no to cake!” he ruffles her hair and pauses. “Somebody gave you a haircut at camp? With what, garden scissors?”

She laughs at that, letting Tony pull them up off the ground. “Is it really that bad?”

“DUM-E could cut your hair better than this, seriously. We’ll have to do something about that before the Expo,” he muses but ruffles her hair again affectionately.

“Yeah…I knew it was bad the second he brought the scissors up.”

“Who?”

“Um…a friend. From the camp. My hair got kinda wild and he thought it would be fun to…have a go at it.”

“Ah, a friend, huh?” Tony beams at her and walks them out of the workshop. “You’re gonna have to tell me everything! How was it? I mean no internet, no phone…must have been awful! Did they at least feed you three times a day? You look skinnier than before. Is that even possible? You better eat half of that cake. And burgers for dinner? I’ll order in! And we can watch a movie! Did they have a television in there? No they didn’t…terrible. I’m never sending you in there again.”

He keeps on talking million kilometers an hour like this throughout the rest of the day, to a point where even Pepper looks like her head is going to explode. Natasha is however too ecstatic to care and just enjoys listening to her dad talk. His voice is different from Bucky’s, not as deep, slightly coarser, but very pleasant to listen to.

She answers all the questions he shoots her way and she shoots just as many back. About what he’s working on, about how uncle Rhodey is doing, what’s new for the Expo…just casual talk over cake and burgers and the movie.

And she’s loving it. Her thoughts go back to Britain more than one time throughout the afternoon and evening, wondering how Peter and the rest are doing. Missing papa Bucky, too. But it’s not like she’s stuck here and won’t get to see them soon. Because if the mission goes as planned, she will be stuck with both her dads and her bro, preferably forever.

But she’s learnt the hard way that sometimes things don’t go according to plan. So when the movie is almost ending and her, papa Tony and Pepper are just chilling on the huge couch with popcorn and someone she doesn’t recognize barges in through the doorway with an obnoxious “Evening, babe!”, Natasha goes into spy-assassin mode within seconds.

Tony at least has the decency to almost choke on the popcorn and with an awkward smile he sends her, he gets up to meet the strange man. “Justin! I thought you were coming this weekend,” he whispers, but Natasha has already tuned the movie out completely and with her zeroed focus on them sees and hears everything.

And she doesn’t like it.

The other guy – who she now actually recognizes as Justin Hammer, an inventor and if she’s correct, one of Tony’s competitors as well, comes up to her dad with a cocky smile and laughs. “Tones, it already _is_ this weekend.”

Tony halts in front of him and scratches the back of his head. “It is, huh? Well,” he clears his throat and his gaze flickers to the couch.

“Rude,” Pepper mumbles and Natasha wants to frown at her, before she notices her godmother is actually glaring at Hammer, not Tony.

“Ah! This must be the young illustrious Peter Stark,” Hammer grins at her and she can’t help but match the grin, her eyes catching on a dangerous glint, though.

“In person,” she replies and gets up, folding her hands.

“Yes, uh…this is Peter, I’ve told you all about him, of course,” Tony starts and gives Natasha a still very awkward smile. “Peter, this is uh Justin. Justin Hammer. He’s - ”

“I know who he is,” she replies, maintaining her cool demeanor. “He was presenting at the Expo last year. What was it…virtual reality gaming? Yep. I remember.” She smirks then. “Shame it didn’t work…the helmet or…whatever it was.”

She can see Hammer’s fake smile harden and get even more fake still. Oh she’s not going to like this one, is she? What is he doing here anyway?!

“Yes…shame. But I hear _someone_ made the idea work, after all,” he says almost nonchalantly, but Natasha recognizes that passive-aggressive look. It’s how Rumlow talks all the time.

She also knows who made it work. Her illustrious, genius twin brother of course. No man can stand between him and his videogames. And she can’t lie – the gaming gear he designed is pretty sweet. But she wouldn’t inflate his so far within-norm ego by telling him that.

Justin Hammer on the other side, he’s got ego rivaling papa Tony’s. Only he’s got nothing on his portfolio to go along with it.

“What can I say?” she shrugs. “I do love a good videogame…even better in virtual glasses.”

“Yes, he really does,” Tony fidgets, looking between her and Hammer.

Now she’s really starting to get uncomfortable. Peter described Tony in many words, but awkward and fidgety was not among them.

“So…I’ve not been the only one making friends this summer,” she gives them her very own patented murder grin.

“Uhhh…yeah. I’ve…invited Justin over for the weekend to…hang out. As friends…cause that’s…we’re friends,” Tony stutters and that’s how she gets her confirmation.

She may be only twelve, but she’s not oblivious and definitely not stupid either. These two are just friends probably as much as Pepper is _just friends_ with Rhodey.

She stares Hammer down, inspecting him from head to toe. Objectively, he’s not too sore on the eyes…one might call him handsome, Natasha guesses, but something about him just rubs her the wrong way. And she’s usually right about that particular gut feeling.

No way she’s just going to watch papa Tony be seduced by this clown when there’s one very much handsome and very much awesome papa Bucky still in the picture.

But she’s going to need more intel first. And reinforcements.


	4. We are all in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha has a serious lunch with papa Tony and an emergency call with bro Peter...with a twist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry about this messy updating schedule (not sure I can even use this word anywhere near this...) but I just kinda write, write and write some more until I'm happy with the chapter...and suddenly the chapter has 3k words and I have no idea how :D This really wasn't supposed to be this long of a story. But I reeeeeally enjoy writing it! ^^ So be prepared for at least another six...seven chapters? O.o Yeah... :D  
> Anyway, thank you all for the lovely comments and suggestions, I hope I've taken all of them to heart and here we go with chapter four and some more of Natasha's POV, which means more Tony, more Jarvis and of course, more of our faaaaavorite character - Justin Hammer himself ^^
> 
> Enjoy! <3

oooOOOooo

“Engaged?! What do you mean engaged?!” Natasha gapes at the ceiling of Peter’s room, hoping FRIDAY’s vocabulary is malfunctioning.

“Mr. Hammer proposed to boss one week ago. Boss did not accept yet, but…”

She collapses on the bed with a groan. “Unbelievable. No wonder papa Tony looked like a deer caught in headlights. Peter has no idea about this! He doesn’t even know papa was dating anyone, let alone getting engaged!”

“That would be correct.”

She sighs, closing her eyes. No way is she letting papa Tony marry that sleazy looking guy. But…what if he’s in love with him?! She groans again, rolling all over the huge bed absentmindedly. “I’m going to need so much more information...good thing I took all the spying lessons from uncle Phil,” she grins.

“Or,” FRIDAY interrupts her out-loud thinking and sounds mighty satisfied with herself. “You can simply access the StarkPad on the desk and brows through the intel I have already gathered; see if it’s of any use.”

Natasha darts upwards and bolts to the desk. “Why didn’t you say that right away? You’re a godsend!” she adds as soon as she starts scrolling through the detailed file FRIDAY created on anything and everything concerning one Justin Hammer.

Apparently, they’ve been in contact since last year’s Expo but only started dating about four months ago. Four months! How is papa Tony keeping this a secret? Four months…a long time for the press not to notice and even longer for her oblivious brother not to notice! It might have something to do with the fact that Hammer is currently being contracted by Stark Industries and is working on the Stark Tower project in New York. So any sighting of him and Tony together would be easily written off as business related.

That’s actually genius, Natasha must admit.

The dating itself looks fairly standard – dinners, movies, walks in the park, hanging out in the workshop drinking brandy. The question this thorough research cannot answer is if Tony really loves this guy or is…just smitten? Seduced? Desperate? Little bit of all of those?

She shuts down the StarkPad after what feels like hours, knowing it’s way late now – or early morning - and tumbles back into the bed muttering a grateful ‘thanks’ when Fry dims the lights.

Before she falls asleep, she wonders how fate works in strange ways. Sure, it would seem it’s throwing some major sticks under their mission’s feet right now, but at the same time the fate brought _her_ here. She might not be a Stark kinda genius, but she’s a Barnes kinda genius – and that’s exactly what they need to deal with Hammer.  

 

* * *

 

“So, Peter. How did you enjoy the summer camp? I heard there was a strict no-electronics policy. Must have been awful,” Hammer starts up a morning small talk as soon as Natasha sits down at the table. Tony isn’t here – she remembers that before 10 AM and two coffees, he won’t be making an appearance anywhere outside his bedroom or workshop, depending on where he fell asleep. If he even slept.

At least he didn’t _sleep with Hammer_ ; she’s already quickly spied inside the guest room and concluded that the man was definitely alone in there the other night.

So it’s just the two of them in the dining room with only Jarvis in the kitchen nearby.

“Nope. It was actually great!” she replies and downs the entire glass of orange juice. “Made a lot of new friends.”

“Ah…good. How about some lady friends, huh?” he grins suggestively, clearly thinking they are having the guy to guy conversation. Natasha listens in on Bucky and Steve all the time to know exactly what this is. Heck, she grew up with Clint for a best friend – she knows how to handle boys.

“Yeah, sure. A couple. We became close. Like really, reeeeally close,” she returns the smirk just as Jarvis enters the room with a platter of French toasts and some bacon.

Hammer is momentarily speechless before he gets his bearings. “Right…like…friends.”

“Hm? No. Not really friends. Better than that,” she grins even more and enjoys the slight widening of the man’s eyes. She also notices the low chuckle coming from Jarvis.

“More juice, young master?” he asks, taking away the empty glass.

“Could I have a cup of tea, please?” she requests and immediately feels like punching herself in the face. Peter hates tea!

“I thought you absolutely abhorred tea,” Jarvis catches on real quick.

“We uh…we had it at camp, every morning. So I kinda…got used to it,” she smiles up at the butler innocently but doesn’t miss the slight narrowing of his eyes.

“Very well, tea it is then,” he nods and serves her the toasts.

“Milk, two sugars,” she can’t help but add.

“Of _course_ ,” Jarvis nods again, squinting at her harder.

“So…about your lady friend…,” Hammer tries to continue the talk.

“More than friend, as I said,” she corrects him. “The bestest of friends. Almost like…a sister, really,” she clarifies and Hammer lets out a sigh of what she guesses is relief.

One look at Jarvis however tells her she should start watching her tongue. He’s now not only squinting at her, but also looks more alert than ever.

“I see. Well in that case you must invite her to stay over sometimes. Does she live far away?”

There’s a fine line between small talk and being overly curious and this guys is now crossing it. “Not really. She’s living closer than I expected…and I have already invited her over.”

Hammer frowns while Jarvis finally clears the room to fetch that tea. “Does Tony know about it?”

“Not yet, why?” she returns the frown.

“So that…he can allow you to invite her?” he explains and this time fails at his little curious boyfriend/fiancé act and turns right back into what she recognized him as last night. A manipulative bastard.

“Why?” she repeats, acting surprised. “I can invite my friends over whenever I want, just like he can. We have a truce, dad and me.”

He doesn’t look convinced. “Is that so?”

“He invited _you_ over without me knowing…right?” she deadpans, successfully robbing him of all arguments.

“That’s different,” he shakes his head with a twisted smile Natasha decides she doesn’t like in the least. “I’m…more than just a friend.”

“So is my lady friend, as I already told you. Twice,” she rolls her eyes.

“Yes but I’m…” Tony’s fiancé. That’s what he wants to say, but stops, knowing very well that particular information is reserved for Tony to tell. “Never mind,” he continues the disturbing smiling.

“I know exactly what you are,” she states, this time falling a little out of the Peter act to introduce this man to Natasha Barnes for a change – her and her perfected murder glare.

“Here’s you tea, young master,” Jarvis emerges from the kitchen again, carrying a proper china tea cup on a saucer, presenting it to her with an expression as curious as Hammer’s interrogating questions.

“Thanks, J! I’ll have it to go! And the toast, too!” she quickly gets up, takes the cup, leaving the saucer in Jarvis’s hand and grabs a slice of toast. The untouched bacon also doesn’t go unnoticed by the former secret service agent.

“Before you go, would you introduce me to your plan for the day?” Jarvis halts her in her speedy retreat.

“Oh…right! I want to spend the day with my dad, of course! Is he…free today?”

Jarvis smiles, almost…knowingly…and nods. “Sir has an SI Board meeting at 11AM. I don’t expect it to last beyond fifteen minutes. And after that, his day is entirely free. He undoubtedly wishes to spend it with you as well,” he adds.

“Great! I’ll have lunch with him then. Can you make reservations someplace nice for us, J?” she asks with her well-practiced Peter puppy eyes.

“How about your favorite place?” he suggests and to Natasha it sounds like a challenge.

Is he suspecting her? Does he know?!

“I ate more spaghetti in the past four weeks than I can count so…no Italian, please,” she smiles innocently, but with the same challenging glint in her eyes. “Dad’s favorite place instead!” She has no idea what his favorite place is when it comes to food, but anything’s better than Italian in her books. Peter is her twin but in some ways they are sooo different. For instance his unconditional love for spaghetti is unheard of.

Jarvis’s face lights up like it’s Christmas Eve’s morning and he just received a room full of presents. It disturbs her even more than the gradually hardening glare Hammer is sending her way. “A marvelous choice if I do say so myself, young master. I shall take care of it.”

“You’re the best, Jarvis! Make it the best table for two! Just…for two,” she smirks at Hammer and waltzes out of the room with breakfast in hand.

 

* * *

 

Turns out papa Tony’s favorite place is this homey Russian bistro in downtown LA that apparently serves the best borsch outside Russia. Jarvis’s knowing smirk as he sent them off made so much more sense to Natasha right now. She really needs to start tiptoeing around the butler from now on.

“Is Pepper staying for a while?” she asks when they dig into desert.

Tony swallows the bite of strudel first and nods. “Yep. Until tomorrow. She’ll have to leave to New York on Wednesday and oversee the final preparations for the Expo.”

“Of course she will. It would be a disaster if _you_ did it instead.”

“Ouch,” he holds onto his chest, faking a hurt expression. “Right in the feels, young man. I’ll have you know I am amazing at organizing…stuff.”

“Uhuh.”

“Speaking of organizing, what’s with the lunch and all? Great idea, by the way, just thought you’d prefer to…stay home. We could have ordered in again and spend the whole afternoon playing videogames!” he suggests, eyebrows raised.

Tony hates videogames – one of the first things Peter pointed out to her. But he plays them anyway, because Peter likes them and he likes playing them with Tony. And Natasha likes what that says about papa Tony, as a dad.

“I wanted to talk to you,” she answers truthfully, moving the plate with the desert aside to stress how serious she is being.

Tony gets the message and does the same. “I thought you might and I think I know what about. I wanted to tell you sooner but…things just spiraled out of control a little and then - ”

“I want to talk about dad,” she interrupts him before he derails into another topic entirely.

That successfully stops the genius engineer mid-sentence and he stares at her for a solid minute. “Your dad?” he repeats somewhat comically.

“Yes, my dad,” she nods patiently, folding her hands on the table. “You know - the other one.”

He slowly nods as well, but his stunned, neutral face doesn’t look like he understands. “Haven’t we already had this talk? I thought…I thought this was about Justin,” he adds in a mumble.

“What? Who? Oh…no, it’s not. Not exactly. And we most definitely did not have this talk yet. I want to know more about him! About you and him,” she smirks, watching papa Tony’s face morph into a mixture of absolute dread and resignation.

“I told you - ” he tries but Natasha is having none of it.

“You told me you met in the army, he called you Iron Man and you called him the Winter Soldier. Don’t you think I deserve to know more?” she flashes the pout at full power at him and that seems to do it.

He sighs, dropping his head. “Yeah…of course you do, champ. Was just hoping not to ever have this conversation,” he shrugs.

“So? What’s his name? What was he like? What - ”

“Hey now, one thing at a time, kiddo,” he warns, but his tense posture finally relaxes, a small smile gracing his lips. “He…we…,” Tony starts, sighing when he doesn’t seem to find the words he’s looking for. “His name’s James,” he settles on in the end.

“Like uncle Rhodey,” Natasha smiles, trying to reassure her panicking father a little.

“Yeah,” he chuckles. “Guess I have a thing for James’s. We uh…oh come on, you know the story!” he whines again, but Natasha just introduces him some more to her deadly glare. “Okay, fine! Just…stop looking at me like that, wow. Did Pepper teach you that glare? Anyway…so…we met in the army…I was overseeing some of the new tech SI developed and there was this guy who kept breaking everything, ridiculous! For such a little guy he was an absolute menace I mean, how do you even break a tank?! The skinny little dude broke a god damn tank!”

Natasha laughs and knows exactly who that person was – uncle Steve. These days it would seem he’s breaking stuff because he can’t control his strength, but in reality stuff keeps breaking in his hands by itself.

“His best friend tried to repair it somewhat before I descended in there to freak about it and he did…kinda. It was a lousy and barbaric emergency repair but let’s say I was impressed anyway.”

“Let me guess, the guy who repaired it was dad.”

Tony nods and Natasha is suddenly at a loss as to what is this new expression on his face. “Yes…turns out he worked at an auto-body shop as a teenager and knows his way around tech and fixing it...in a barbaric way with way too many wrong screwdrivers, but still.”

“So you asked him out on a date!”

“Uh, no,” he laughs. “ _He_ asked _me_ out. I didn’t really have the confident flare I’ve got now, but he did,” he smiles fondly. “He was a bigger playboy than me back then! So we went on a date…and another…and another…and by the time I left back to New York to start inventing again, we were…,” he trails off, uncertainty tracing his features.

“In love,” Natasha finishes for him, also uncertain until Tony nods with a sad smile.

“Yeah. He was…amazing,” he chuckles, but there’s little to no amusement in it. “Never met a guy who could smile like he could. It brought his entire face to life and…he smiled _a lot_. When he was with me. So I smiled a lot too…his best friend called us a bunch of lovesick idiots who should stop being babies and just get on with it so…we got married few months later, moved in together, then we adopted you…and then,” he shrugs, eyes pinned on the wooden table. “And then we broke up one year later. He moved to Europe and…that’s it.”

“Why? Why did you break up?” she explains when he meets her eyes with confusion.  

“That’s complicated,” he frowns, the fondness and nostalgia quickly giving way to something else. “We were young and…stupid. And we thought just because we love each other it’s enough to have a _life_ together.”

“Isn’t it?” she asks with a doubtful frown.

“No…?” Tony replies and Natasha is starting to dislike this uncertain side of him. It shouldn’t be there, not with a man as confident and outspoken as papa Tony. “I don’t know. It wasn’t enough for us I guess. When your grandparents died and I had to take over the company it only went from bad to worse. I was…it was my fault, really,” he admits with a sting of regret and Natasha wishes she didn’t even ask. “Maybe if we met way later, after I was already on the right track with SI, accomplished, with some actual life experience and not such an asshole, it might have been a different story. But it wasn’t so…we argued a lot, I ignored and avoided him a lot and then I threw a welder at him during a fight, packed our bags and just left. Obviously, we separated after that, seeing that staying together at one place was not really working out for us. And you were caught up in that and even if you were still just a baby it just wasn’t good for you…not good at all. During that time he got an offer for a deployment in Europe with his bestie and…had no reason to say no. We got a divorce and the rest is history,” he finishes in almost a mere whisper.

“So…we weren’t a good enough reason for him to stay?” she asks, despite knowing very well that the story got even more complicated since there were _two_ kids involved. She figures they didn’t want to abandon the two of them just because they were about abandon each other and arguing over who keeps them would probably be for the worse.

So they split them up.

“That’s not how…listen, nothing that happened back then had anything to do with you or - ” he halts and Natasha knows what he almost just said. It had nothing to do with _Peter or her_. “He loved you, more than you can imagine. It wasn’t easy for him to leave you behind, I know it wouldn’t be…for me either,” he adds quietly. “But he’s a soldier, dangerous job and everything so…you staying with me made more sense.”

This time Natasha feels a little bit of actual anger rising up. “If he loved me so much then why did he never visit? Or write…or something?!” she pouts and falls back into the chair, glaring at Tony because that’s the man she’s talking about.

Tony looks hurt - not the usual fake hurt, but actually, heart-wrenchingly hurt. “Wh…what good would it do? He’s on the other side of the planet living his own life, moving on…we both are. He hasn’t seen you since you were a toddler, you don’t remember him…seeing you again…it would be painful for everybody, alright?”

“You know what would be painful?! If - ”

 _If after thirteen years of your life someone told you you have a twin brother living blissfully oblivious on the other side of the world with your second dad_. She doesn’t say that of course, but just the thought of it brings tears to her eyes.

Would they really never tell them they have a sibling? Ever?

“Never mind,” she grumbles and refuses to meet the man’s eyes, even as she spots him moving.

“Go on…say it,” he prompts her, crouching down next to her.

She thinks about it for a while before glancing sideways at him. “What if I stayed with him then? What if I was the one living in Europe right now with James? Wouldn’t you miss me?”

He widens his eyes, immediately shaking his head. “Pete…of course I would! You were gone just one month this summer and I had to work on ten projects at once to distract myself from going completely mad! I’m sure James misses you, even after all these years. If our roles were reversed, I would miss you. I would think about you every day,” he says vehemently, leaving no doubt that he means it. “About what you’re doing, if you’re having fun, if you’re okay. I would never stop missing you, but at the same time…I’d know suddenly coming into your life after all these years would be just…I don’t know how to explain this to you, kiddo. I wish I could…” he trails off with an uncanny hint of desperation an utter loss in his eyes.

Natasha keeps on watching him, still unsure of what to think. She never really cared about papa Tony. Bucky told her what he told her, that he exists and that they met in the army and all; that was it. And she was happy with it. Well, she was six and couldn’t care more about some guy who she’s never met and who’s never there. It’s not like she’s missing some rolemodel or anything. She’s got Bucky and if she has a need for some girl talk she can always run across the street to Peggy. Peter hardly has a problem in this either with papa Tony and aunt Pepper.

In a way she understands papa Tony’s explanation. If she were never to meet him, she would likely be just fine. But Peter is a different story. Her never knowing about _him_ is a different story. That’s just plain unfair to keep this kind of a secret from them. And she doesn’t know if she wants to forget and forgive right now.

What if something happened to Bucky? Him having a dangerous job and all that Tony said was just an excuse in his explanation, but it’s also true. She’ll never forget that night five years ago when Peggy woke her up to tell her the base him and uncle Steve were training troops at in the Middle-East was bombed and papa Bucky was injured. She spent the rest of the night crying in Peggy’s arms and the next days were for sure the worst days of her life.

He almost died back then. He ‘only’ lost his left arm but he came so close to losing more than that. She almost lost a dad. Would papa Tony act if that happened?

It’s an awful and depressing thought so she shakes her head in attempt to discard it but that’s when it hits her. And it hits her so hard her head snaps to Tony in a split of a second and she just gapes at him open mouthed.

 _Papa Bucky lost his arm._ _Five_ years ago. And _four_ years ago, Stark Industries made history with its bionic design breakthrough. Months later, papa Bucky accepted – very reluctantly now that she thinks about it – a trial with a prototype of the bionic arm prosthetic series SI later officially introduced for public health care.

She knows that. She knew that he had a Stark designed cool as hell metal hand but the meaning of it only now catches up with her brain.

 _He made that arm for him_. _Tony_ made it _specifically_ for _Bucky_. Unless he randomly woke up one day and decided to go from inventing weapons to bionics on a whim. He was in robotics also, but going from producing half-sentient bots to designing metal limbs that are fully connected to human nerve systems, that’s a bit of a leap.

But he made that leap - for Bucky.

“You okay, kiddo?” Tony interrupts her exploding mind, watching her curiously.

She is most definitely not okay.

Because if Tony made that arm for Bucky, if he shut down the entire weapon manufacturing and switched to bionics, engines, power generators and gadgets overnight, then that means Tony knew about the attack and knew about what happened…and if he knew, then he had to keep some kind of contact with the other side of the world. Maybe not directly…but he must have kept in touch.

Because he still cares. And always had.

She breaks into a grin and surprises the still confused adult with a hug attack. “I’ve never been better!” she blurts out into Tony’s shoulder and pulls away to inspect the vulnerable expression on her dad’s face.

He smiles just as beautifully as Bucky smiles at her and ruffles her hair. “So…about this other dad business,” he continues, getting up and returning to his seat.

“I understand. I think,” she muses and it might be a bit of a lie, but she’s decided she won’t dwell on things in the past. The mission is in the here and now!

“You do? Wow. Guess you really are growing up,” he keeps the gentle smile on and makes an impromptu toast with his glass of apple cider.

“Would you like anything else to drink, young sir?” the friendly waiter comes to ask about her empty glass and Natasha knows exactly what she wants.

“Vodka, please, triple,” she orders as casually as ever and since the table is now covered in apple cider and spit, it does the trick once again.

 

* * *

“Engaged?! What do you mean engaged?!” Peter spits all over the webcam because it goes out of focus for a moment before he wipes it clean.

“That’s what I said,” Natasha shrugs.

“Engaged to Hammer?! But…but…he’s fugly and and and useless! He’s definitely just in it for money!”

“I’ll find out, don’t worry.”

“Don’t worry?!” he flails, disappearing from the screen. “My dad just got engaged to this…this…orc! And I can’t even do anything about it!”

“Bro! Relax. I’m on top of this, seriously. FRIDAY is a big help, too.”

“Why, thank you,” Fry chirps.

Peter slowly emerges from the ground and back into view with a groan. “Fry is the best…but this is definitely a problem! If dad wants to marry this guy then how do we – oh no! What if he _loves_ Hammer?!” he slaps his hands on his face. “I don’t wanna spend the rest of my life with a deadbeat second dad who can’t even make virtual reality goggles right! Not when Bucky is right here. He’s _right here_ and he’s _amazing_ , Nat!”

“I know,” she smiles fondly, watching Peter fanboy over her – their dad. “Tony is pretty amazing himself. I think we’ve already established that though. Here’s what’s gonna happen. Brief the rest of the guys, tell them what’s happening here. Fry has already sent the Expo tickets to Clint’s address. I would send them to you, but papa always gets the post after his morning run and so does uncle Steve so that’s a no go. And Wanda’s parents probably scan every letter for bombs, anthrax and whatnot.”

“Okay. When should we bring it up to the adults?”

“On Wednesday in the latest. If it’s any later they would argue there’s no time to get ready. Let Clint do it first. Once uncle Wade gets all enthusiastic about something, the rest have little chance to resist.”

“And if Bucky refuses?”

“You know the plan, shrimp.”

“Yeah but…,” he pauses, grimacing.

“You got this, bro. No time to be afraid. Our dads…they love us. And more importantly, I think they still love each other. So stop your whining over there and get in the game!” she grins and stares at the spitting image of her on the other side of the screen.

Peter nods with a chuckle and with a goodnight he cuts the feed.

“Let’s get in the game, Fry.”

“I am all in, Miss Natasha.”

“I suppose we are not talking poker here, are we?”

Natasha’s heart skips a beat at the sudden curious voice form behind her and she all but freezes in the chair. She slowly glances over her shoulder to meet Jarvis’s unreadable face.

“We need to talk, I believe,” he says, closing the door behind him and even though Natasha is not exactly a believer in a higher power, she prays to anyone and everyone that this talk isn’t going to be the end of their plan.


End file.
